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Monday, June 25, 2012

Does anyone remember...?

I've been a Mills&Boon addict since I was a young teen. Along the intervening decades, I've read some books that linger, half-remembered in the back of my brain. These are the keepers that I've lost along the way (don't worry, am not going to turn this into another rant about my ex and the skip - we all know what happened).

With most, I don't recall the titles, nor the writers, but only half snatches of the story. It's infuriating.

Here are three I'd love to read again:

The first is a story about a heroine named Anne. Anne worked as a nurse and there was tragedy in her past - a stillborn baby and a failed marriage. Then, one day, Anne sees an advert for a nanny for someone she is convinced is her own child - the one who had supposedly died. She takes on an assumed name, borrows references from a friend and applies for and gets the job. As far as her husband was concerned, Anne had walked out on him and their newborn daughter on the day of the birth and he can't understand why she's back. Until his evil, but now repentant, mother confesses she had told Anne that her baby had died and the husband wanted nothing to do with her.

The second, involves a student named Gemma, who is convinced to take part in an experiment on dating for a fellow student's thesis. This involves dark haired and dark eyed Gemma wearing a blonde wig and blue contact lenses so that she fits the bill as the ideal physical type for the target man. They go off to Switzerland, where Gemma is thrown into the path of this man with the expected consequences.

The third has a heroine who takes a job with a farming family as a general domestic worker. She's been well educated by her wealthy family, but does all she can to fit in with her employers. It turns out the mother of the family is also her own biological mother and she was given up for adoption as a baby. The romantic interest is provided by the family's step-son who assumes that she is a rich man's plaything when he sees her with her adoptive father.

If these stories ring bells with anyone, please let me know. I'd love to be able to track down copies and replace them in my collection.

And what romance novels have lingered in your mind long after you've closed the covers?